Photos

Gaunt House, Standlake, Oxfordshire

The archway to the right used to support the drawbridge over the moat.

Gaunt House, a moated house 0.5 miles (800 m) east of Standlake Village across the River Windrush, existed by the latter part of the 15th century. It is named after the family that owned it until 1516.

In the English Civil War it belonged to Samuel Fell, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and was garrisoned by Royalist troops until the Parliamentarian Colonel Thomas Rainsborough besieged and captured it in May 1645.Thereafter it was garrisoned by Parliamentarian troops, including cavalry who raided Kidlington in October 1645 and infantry who fought at Radcot in April 1646.

After Samuel Fell's death in 1649 Gaunt House passed first to his widow Margaret and then to his son John Fell, who was Bishop of Oxford from 1676. On his death in 1686 John Fell left Gaunt House to Christ Church, Oxford to provide an income to pay bursaries for poor students. It remained with Christ Church until it was sold 1955.

Gaunt House was originally timber-framed but only a section of the original structure remains: all the rest having been replaced in stone by the early part of the 17th century.

Maintained by Nicky Casey
http://casey.net.nz/tree